Tamar Valley Festival of Blossom
Encouraging people to access nature by train
Poet Sally Crabtree on our ‘Blossom Train’
The Tamar Valley Festival of Blossom was devised by the National Trust Cotehele and the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership as a way to engage communities around the Tamar Valley Line with the train and natural environment through a series of blossom focused events.
The 2025 festival saw a varied programme of engagement, spanning three months, involved 757 people from a diverse cross section of the communities along the Line, including refugees and asylum seekers, local Primary Schools and care home residents and resulted in a 14% increase in journeys on the line.
A new permanent artwork for Plymouth station was created by pupils from Calstock Primary school using recycled junk mail. Copper Valley Primary wrote poems and created a blossom song. Other events included an on-train CreativiTea party, interactive storytelling session for children, guided blossom walks and blossom yoga.
The National Trust bought 150 books of train tickets and gave them to people on low incomes, to remove any financial barrier to attending. Cotehele waived their entry fee if they arrived by train.
Refugee groups from Plymouth attended creative workshops and shared memories of home over free food, provided by Tamar Grow Local.
DCRP’s social media posts for the blossom events reached 117,132 people.
